Patents Assigned to Apple
  • Patent number: 11368891
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for operating transceiver circuitry to communicate signals on various frequency ranges based on primary cell and/or secondary cell assignments. A controller associated with the transceiver circuitry may operate a receiver to receive a handover initiation packet using a first frequency range as a primary cell from a base station. The controller may adjust the receiver and a transmitter to use a second frequency range as the primary cell, to adjust the receiver and the transmitter to detach from the first frequency range as the primary cell, and to reset information corresponding to the first frequency range to enable attachment of the first frequency range to a secondary cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Anatoliy Sergey Ioffe, Alexander Sayenko, Jie Cui
  • Patent number: 11368342
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing or substantially eliminating an insertion loss caused by isolating a transmit circuit from a receive circuit of an electronic device. To do so, an isolation circuit may be disposed between the transmit circuit and the receive circuit. The isolation circuit may have a first signal path and a second signal path. A first portion of the signal may propagate along the first signal path and a second portion of the signal may propagate along the second signal path. A phase shifter may be disposed on the first signal path to shift a phase of the first portion to match a phase of the second portion. The phase-shifted first portion may be combined with the second portion to reduce or substantially eliminate an insertion loss caused by the isolation circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Björn Lenhart, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 11368688
    Abstract: An encoder system may include an analyzer that analyzes a current image area in an input video to select a transform. A selectable residue transformer, controlled by the analyzer, may perform the selectable transform on a residue image generated from the current image area and a predicted current image area, to generate a transformed residue image. An encoder may encode the transformed residue image to generate output data. The analyzer controls the encoder to encode information to identify the selectable transform and to indicate that the selectable transform for the current image area is different from a transform of a previous image area of the input video. A decoder system may include components appropriate for decoding the output data from the encoder system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Alexandros Tourapis
  • Patent number: 11368181
    Abstract: An electrical balance duplexer has multiple impedance gradients and multiple impedance tuners. The electrical balance duplexer transmits an outgoing signal from a transmitter during a transmission mode when a first set of impedance gradients of the multiple impedance gradients is operating in a first impedance state and a first set of impedance tuners of the multiple impedance tuners is operating in a second state. The electrical balance duplexer isolates the outgoing signal from a receiver during the transmission mode when a second set of impedance gradients of the multiple impedance gradients and a second set of impedance tuners of the multiple impedance tuners are operating in the second impedance state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Oliver Georg Dorn, Joonhoi Hur, Rastislav Vazny
  • Patent number: 11366558
    Abstract: Visibility of the metal mesh touch electrodes can be mitigated using one or more mitigation techniques. In some examples, the boundary between touch electrodes and/or the boundary between a touch electrode and a routing trace of another touch electrode and/or the boundary between two routing traces can be non-linear. In some examples, dummy cuts can be made within an area of a touch electrode region (e.g., while maintaining the same electrical potential for the touch electrode region). In some examples, notches can be made in the metal mesh. In some examples, the location of cuts and/or notches can be optimized to mitigate visibility of the metal mesh. In some examples, some or all of the visibility mitigations may be used in combination in a touch screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Tiffany Tang Moy, Tsung-Ting Tsai, Warren S. A. Rieutort-Louis, Aleksandr N. Polyakov, Chuang Qian, Sabino Joseph Pietrangelo, II, Abbas Jamshidi-Roudbari, Rui Liu, Yurii Morozov
  • Patent number: 11367167
    Abstract: Methods and systems include neural network-based image processing and blending circuitry to blend an output of the neural network to compensate for potential artifacts from the neural network-based image processing. The neural network(s) apply image processing to image data using one or more neural networks as processed data. Enhance circuitry enhances the image data in a scaling circuitry to generate enhanced data. Blending circuitry receives the processed image data and the enhanced data along with an image plane of the processed data. The blending circuitry also determines whether the image processing using the one or more neural networks has applied a change to the image data greater than a threshold amount. The blending circuitry then, based at least in part in response to the change being greater than the threshold amount and/or edge information of the image data, blends the processed data with the enhanced data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jim C. Chou, Yun Gong
  • Patent number: 11366321
    Abstract: In one implementation, a method of controlling a dimming level of dimmable optical element based on a predicted ambient light level is performed at a device including one or more processors, non-transitory memory, and a dimmable optical element. The method includes predicting a change, in a first direction, in an ambient light level at a future time. The method includes changing, at a first time in advance of the future time and in the first direction, a transmission coefficient of the dimmable optical element based on the predicted change in the ambient light level. The method includes changing, at a second time after the first time and in a second direction opposite the first direction, the transmission coefficient of the dimmable optical element based on the ambient light level at the second time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventor: Anselm Grundhoefer
  • Patent number: 11368055
    Abstract: A wireless power system may have a wireless power transmitting device and a wireless power receiving device. The wireless power receiving device may have a coil that receives wireless power signals from the wireless power transmitting device and may have a rectifier that produces direct-current power from the received wireless power signals. A charging status indicator may be displayed by the wireless power receiving device during wireless power transmission. Control circuitry in the wireless power receiving device may monitor the output voltage to determine whether wireless power transmission has been lost. The charging status indicator may continue to be displayed for a debounce period following detection of loss of wireless power transmission. The debounce period may be adjusted based on whether power loss is due to user movement of the receiving device or termination of power transmission by the transmitting device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Ye, Cortland S. Tolva
  • Patent number: 11367385
    Abstract: A display device has a timing controller and a microdriver. The timing controller receives multiple bit sequences of image data for multiple pixels of the display device. The timing controller also reorders the multiple bit sequences based on a significant bit position within the multiple bit sequences. Each of the multiple bit sequences corresponds to a respective individual pixel of the multiple pixels. The microdriver receives the reordered multiple bit sequences and drives the multiple pixels using the reordered plurality of bit sequences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Seung Bum Rim, Hopil Bae
  • Patent number: 11367166
    Abstract: In one implementation, a method includes obtaining an image. The method includes correcting color aberration of the image comprising, for a particular pixel of the image by determining one or more chromatic characteristic values for the particular pixel, determining a likelihood that the particular pixel exhibits color aberration based on the one or more chromatic characteristic values for the particular pixel, generating a filtered version of the particular pixel by filtering the particular pixel using pixels in a neighborhood surrounding the particular pixel, and generating a color-corrected version of the particular pixel based on the likelihood that the particular pixel exhibits color aberration and the filtered version of the particular pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Zahra Sadeghipoor Kermani, Sheng Lin, Emmanuel Piuze Phaneuf, Ryan Joseph Dunn, Joachim Michael Deguara, Farhan A. Baqai
  • Patent number: 11368265
    Abstract: In some embodiments, an apparatus of a Fifth Generation (5G) NodeB (gNB) comprises one or more baseband processors to encode one or more channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) to be transmitted to a user equipment (UE). The one or more CSI-RS signals comprise a complex sequence mapped to a resource element (RE) such that all CSI-RS ports use an identical sequence for the one or more CSI-RS signals in a symbol. In other embodiments, the gNB comprises one or more baseband processors to encode a scrambling identity (ID) configuration for one or more demodulation reference signals (DMRS), wherein the scrambling ID configuration indicates one of two scrambling IDs to be signaled to a UE.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sameer Pawar, Avik Sengupta, Alexei Davydov
  • Patent number: 11367242
    Abstract: Disclosed techniques relate to ray intersection processing for ray tracing. In some embodiments, ray intersection circuitry traverses a spatially organized acceleration data structure and includes bounding region circuitry configured to test, in parallel, whether a ray intersects multiple different bounding regions indicated by a node of the data structure. Shader circuitry may execute a ray intersect instruction to invoke traversal by the ray intersect circuitry and the traversal may generate intersection results. The shader circuitry may shade intersected primitives based on the intersection results. Disclosed techniques that share processing between intersection circuitry and shader processors may improve performance, reduce power consumption, or both, relative to traditional techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ali Rabbani Rankouhi, Christopher A. Burns, Justin A. Hensley, Luca Iuliano, Jonathan M. Redshaw
  • Patent number: 11363861
    Abstract: A watchband can comfortably secure an electronic device to a wrist of a user. The watchband can include a base having a contact surface opposite an engagement surface, contact loops on the contact surface for contacting a user, and engagement loops on the engagement surface for engaging hooks. The hooks can be provided on the engagement surface, opposite some of the contact loops. The base can include base threads, and the contact loops and engagement loops can be formed by contact threads and engagement threads woven about some of the base threads between the contact surface and the engagement surface. Between adjacent engagement loops, the engagement thread can be more securely attached to the base than is the contact thread between adjacent contact loops.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Benjamin A. Shaffer, Yoji Hamada, Motohide Hatanaka, Hsiang-Hung Chen, Eiryo Shiraishi
  • Patent number: 11366246
    Abstract: An optical module includes a beam-tilting light source enclosure. The enclosure is coupled to a substrate that includes a light emitter connected thereto. The enclosure has a geometry such that the enclosure has a first surface configured to couple substantially flat to the substrate and a second surface tilted with respect to the first surface and configured to couple substantially flat to a component of an electronic device through which the light is to project. The enclosure is optically transmissive and covers the light source when coupled to the substrate. In this way, the enclosure may be assembled and used in the electronic device by coupling the first surface to the substrate and coupling the second surface to the component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Michael K. McCord, Mehmet Mutlu, Ryan J. Linderman
  • Patent number: 11366325
    Abstract: An audio component for a head-mounted display system includes a first port through which sound is projected to a user during operation in a first audio mode, a second port through which sound is projected to a user during operation in a second audio mode, an insulator positioned along an acoustic path between the first port and the second port, wherein the insulator is configured to inhibit sound projection along the acoustic path by isolating the first port from the second port, and an earpiece configured to engage the audio component to an ear of the a user, to deliver sound from the audio component to the user, and to reduce ambient noise from a surrounding environment during operation of the audio component in the second audio mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Robert D. Silfvast, James W. VanDyke, Jeremy C. Franklin, Neal D. Evans, Christopher T. Eubank
  • Patent number: 11367163
    Abstract: Artistic styles extracted from source images may be applied to target images to generate stylized images and/or video sequences. The extracted artistic styles may be stored as a plurality of layers in one or more neural networks, which neural networks may be further optimized, e.g., via the fusion of various elements of the networks' architectures. The artistic style may be applied to the target images and/or video sequences using various optimization methods, such as the use of a first version of the neural network by a first processing device at a first resolution to generate one or more sets of parameters (e.g., scaling and/or biasing parameters), which parameters may then be mapped for use by a second version of the neural network by a second processing device at a second resolution. Analogous multi-processing device and/or multi-network solutions may also be applied to other complex image processing tasks for increased efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Francesco Rossi, Marco Zuliani, Bartlomiej W. Rymkowski, Albert Antony, Brian P. Keene, Xiaojin Shi
  • Patent number: 11366981
    Abstract: Providing localization data includes obtaining a first image of a scene associated with a first condition, determining one or more target conditions, and applying an appearance transfer network to the first image to obtain one or more synthesized images comprising the scene, wherein the scene is associated with the one or more target conditions in the synthesized image. A first patch is selected from the first image, wherein the first patch comprises a keypoint, and an image location is determined for the first patch. Then one or more additional patches can be obtained using the synthesized images and the image location. A descriptor network may be trained to provide localization data based on the first patch and the one or more additional patches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Lina M. Paz-Perez
  • Patent number: 11367224
    Abstract: A system comprises an encoder configured to compress attribute information and/or spatial information for a point cloud and/or a decoder configured to decompress compressed attribute and/or spatial information for the point cloud. The encoder is configured to convert a point cloud into an image based representation. The encoder packs patch images into an image frame and fills empty spaces in the image frame with a padding. Various compression strategies may be used to encode an occupancy map and related block-to-patch information indicating which portions of the image frame correspond to which packed patches. Packed image frames comprising patches and padding, along with an encoded occupancy map and related block-to-patch information are sent to a decoder. The decoder is configured to generate a decompressed point cloud based on the packed image frames, compressed occupancy map, and related block-to-patch information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Khaled Mammou, Alexandros Tourapis, Yeping Su, Jungsun Kim, Fabrice A Robinet, Valery G. Valentin
  • Patent number: D955146
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Sheng Yang, Olivia M. Ching, Chien Tsun Chen, Eric Weijia Wang, Ricardo A. Mariano, Allison Inouye, Kristy Judy Hsu, Po Huang, Jean-Marc Gady, Peter Russell-Clarke, Daniele De Iuliis, Jeremy Bataillou, Markus Diebel, Rico Zörkendörfer, Molly Anderson, Shota Aoyagi, Jody Akana
  • Patent number: D955439
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Aurelio Guzmán